Backup from Dropbox to External HD

[rymanbugs]

I’d like to backup the entire contents of my large Dropbox account to an external hard drive. What is the best way to do this?

Considerations:

1. I have a complex web of folders and files, some of which are online-only and not. I’d like to keep the current setting of which are online-only and which are not. Syncing down in batches and copy-pasting onto the external is therefore not ideal.
2. Backup methods like Time Machine don’t do much good with stub files like Dropbox’s online-only files.
3. The size of my Dropbox contents exceeds the capacity of my local hard drive, so I can’t use it as a “middle-man”.
4. There are apparently download limits on Dropbox web, so I don’t think I can just download it all directly to an external hard drive.
5. One idea would be to make a new user on my Mac, sign into Dropbox, set the folder to the external HD, and sync everything down, but this seems risky and janky…

Any ideas appreciated!

[Rich]

Use something like Cyberduck/Mountain Duck or CloudMounter to mount Dropbox as a drive, then copy from there direct to your external.

[Bourne Group]

THANK YOU!!!!

I used the Cloud Mounter!

[smekuria]

I am also very surprised to find that I can't get my files out of Dropbox to travel with them on my backup drive. It is like they are in cloud prison and I have to work hard to get them out. There has to be a simpler way to access my own files for whose rent I pay a good amount of money to Dropbox!! Why should backup be a one way only street?

[Hans Fidom]

Hi Smekuria (and everyone else),

What I do is this: in Safari's preferences (general tab) I relocate the download folder temporarily to my external HD, then go to my online Dropbox, select the folder I like to be on my external HD and click in the ... menu related to that folder the option 'Download'. 

Works for me: I now have a backup of my Dropbox folder on my external HD. It takes a bit of time, but it's easy and reliable. 

Hans